1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for performing bioanalytic processing and analysis. In particular, the present invention relates to a bioanalytical reaction device and a cartridge thereof. The cartridge contains at least one sample chamber for storing biological samples, the bioanalytical reaction device can process and analyze.
2. Description of Related Art
One example of a bioanalytical reaction is the DNA polymerase chain reaction. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) is a technique that permits amplification and detection of nucleic acid sequences. This technique has a wide variety of applications including DNA sequence analysis, detection of genetic mutations, diagnoses of viral infections, to name but a few. With the PCR a specific target sequence or strand of DNA can exponentially amplificated. The polymerase chain reaction comprises repeated cycles of target denaturation by heating the sample, primer annealing at a lower temperature and polymerase-mediated extension at a slight higher temperature. At the last step, the DNA polymerase synthesizes a new DNA strand complementary to the DNA template strand. Under optimal conditions, the amount of DNA target strands is doubled.
Besides to PCR, other bioanalytical reactions are known, for example the ligase chain reaction. More generally, several import bioanalytical methods are dependent upon changing the temperature of samples in a controlled fashion. Therefore, there is a need for the automation of these methods.
Several mechanical and automated bioanalytical reaction devices are known in the art. Certain devices use cartridges for storing biological samples, so that the one or more biological samples in one cartridge can be temporarily stored, while the biological samples in another cartridge can be processed in the bioanalytical reaction device. An operator only needs to remove the one cartridge from the device and insert the other cartridge into the device.
Such cartridges have various interfaces, such as one or more interfaces for heating a sample in the cartridge as well as one or more interfaces for optical reading out the result of the reaction, which is, for example, indicated by a certain color of the sample or by certain illuminating substances.
More specifically, the samples to be processed are stored in one or more chambers in the cartridge. In general, an interface is provided by a wall of one of the chambers through which the sample can be heated or analyzed. If an optical readout has to be performed, the chamber needs a transparent wall as interface.